For so long I have been entertaining a doubt in my mind. Everybody, especially economists always talk about growth. Now how do they measure economic growth? In terms of growth in GDP, Per Capita Income and, Standard of Living. How do they measure Standard of Living? By the value of goods and services a person uses. To bring about increase in GDP they need to produce more. As it is a well known fact that our natural resources are exhaustible and we do not have the infinite quantity of resources especially mineral resources underneath the earth to sustain this kind of development in the long term. Till now the developed world lived a luxurious life and now their economies are going down and the hitherto underdeveloped countries are fast catching up and they are engaged in massive expansion of their industrial infrastructure. The people of the developing world want to emulate the life style of their counterparts in the developed world. Now they want to enjoy all the luxuries.
Some time ago India's largest business house TATA Sons manufactured a small car NANO. Many middle class Indians rushed to book one for themselves. These days in India people started using diesel versions of the cars. As the diesel is cheap and it is mainly used to fuel commercial vehicles that are used to transport essential commodities and the vehicles used for public transportation, it is termed as poor man's fuel. But rich people who can afford to buy a car by spending lakhs of rupees want to save on fuel. So they want diesel versions. The car manufacturing companies (I don't think there is any car maker which is not selling its cars in India)are making a beeline in the market with their new diesel versions. Indians are getting used to the car culture. All these cars have to pass through narrow, potholed, liquor shop infested roads which are extremely precarious. Indian roads are getting soaked with blood. Every day thousands of vehicles hit the roads, but roads do not get widened. These days in India if any one rides a bicycle it is considered to be an insult. People take pity on him and think that the person is so poor to buy a motor bike. The economic inequalities have widened. I see new multi-storied plush apartments under construction, and there is a large number of people who have high disposable incomes. These days in India if you ask what is the most happening thing, immediately comes the answer. CORRUPTION. Not only politicians, criminals,bureaucrats and media men, even contractors, businessmen are exploring the illegal sources of earning and they are always ready to throw money to own highly expensive products. On the other hand there are many families which are leading impoverished lives. Regional disparities have also increased. The Telangana agitation intended to force the government to carve out a separate state is the direct result of the regional disparities.
I have been observing the weather conditions in India for some time and the summers are particularly distressing for the last five years. Every year the peak temperature breaks all the previous records. People started buying water. They started catching new kinds of diseases, their waistlines are growing and diseases like hypertension and diabetes have become common. products of organic farming are sold in separate outlets though India was well known for its organic farming. I'm from an agricultural family and my paternal grandfather would take lot of care of his cattle. He would use them to till his land, he would preserve their dung and use it to increase the fertility of his land. He would never sell even the cows that have grown old and useless to slaughter houses. But these days people don't want to have cows or buffaloes in their compounds and they are selling them to slaughter houses. This activity has forced the farmers to depend entirely on artificial fertilizers which are causing irreparable damage to the earth and its long term fertility.
No doubt this kind of economic growth is not at all sustainable and the developing countries copying the lifestyle of the people of developed nations drives us towards disaster.
This world has got enough to satisfy the needs of the people but it does not have enough to satisfy the greed of the people. Humans turned greedy and in the name of growth they want to cut the udder of the cow under the influence of foolishness and squeeze off all the milk at once instead of nurturing it at milking it. As the humanity is running out of time it is time all the economists and policy makers designed an alternative mechanism to ensure the welfare of not only humans but all the creatures on this earth so that they all can co exist is perfect harmony. The system should also ensure the curbing of global warming and nurturing of earth and its bio-diversity. Otherwise the day is not far away when the humanity would meets its doom. So please publish some great ideas towards that direction instead of blindly promoting growth theories.
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